Carlos Ortiz pleads not guilty to killing Odin Lloyd

Carlos Ortiz denies killing Odin Lloyd in North Attleboro last June, pleading not guilty to the charge of murder in Superior Court on Tuesday.

Kevin P. O'Connor Herald News Staff Reporter @HNKPO

FALL RIVER — Carlos Ortiz said two words at his arraignment Tuesday on the charge of murder: Not guilty.

His lawyer was willing to expand on that statement.

Ortiz, 27, of Bristol, Connecticut, was formally charged in superior court with murder in the June 17, 2013, killing of Odin Lloyd, 27, of Dorchester in North Attleboro.

Aaron Hernandez, the former Patriots tight end, is also charged with Lloyd’s murder.

A Bristol County Grand Jury indicted Ortiz as part of a conspiracy with Hernandez and a third man, Ernest Wallace, 45, of Miramar, Florida, to kill Lloyd.

Lloyd’s body was found, dead from gunshots, on the morning of June 18, 2013, in the North Attleboro Industrial Park.

Ortiz was arrested shortly after Lloyd's body was found and was initially held on $500,000 bail on the charge of accessory after the fact of murder.

Defense lawyer John Connors asked superior court Judge E. Susan Garsh to continue that bail, even though prosecutors have upgraded that charge to murder.

“He has been held for close to a year on $500,000 cash bail,” Connors argued. “We would ask that be continued.” The facts in the case have not changed, he said.

The judge disagreed, ordering Ortiz held without bail pending trial. She told Connors, co-counsel Michael Maloney and prosecutor William McCauley to be prepared for a pretrial conference on Sept. 24 and a pretrial hearing on Nov. 24.

The prosecution alleged that Hernandez, accompanied by Wallace and Ortiz, called Lloyd and picked him up at his home in Dorchester. All four men were friends, prosecutors allege.

Lloyd was killed and left behind, according to prosecutors. The indictment does not specify which of the four men is alleged to have fired the shots that killed Lloyd.

Under a charge of conspiracy, the illegal act of any actor can be charged against all the members of the conspiracy, according to the law.

Connors questioned why prosecutors filed a murder charge against Ortiz after initially charging him with the lesser offense of being an accessory after the fact of murder.

“The only thing that has changed is that they have upgraded the charges,” Connors argued. “None of the evidence has changed. All that has changed, as far as I am concerned, is the prosecution strategy.”

Wallace was arraigned on the charge of murder on May 15. He is awaiting trial on that charge. Hernandez is also awaiting trial on the murder charge. All three men are being held in custody while awaiting trial.

Prosecutors in Boston have since alleged that Hernandez committed two other murders in Boston in 2012. Those alleged murders are not connected to the charges against Hernandez resulting from the death of Odin Lloyd.